Has anyone noticed that it's impossible to buy incandescent bulbs bigger than 100 watts at the supermarket?

We had noticed this some time ago and had several family members asking about this recently. They had come to the conclusion that they wee no longer available. So I'm guessing there's a few people around who used to buy these bulbs for use at home but now cannot buy them at the supermarket and may have come to the same conclusion.

The withdrawal of the higher wattage bulbs seemed to coincide with the introduction of the energy efficient bulbs. Is there some sort of plot to wean us off the good old incandescent bulb in favour of the new, and, in my opinion less than ideal, energy efficient bulbs?

However all isn't lost. Places like Mitre 10 Mega sell the higher wattage bulbs for those of you that want them.

We had noticed this some time ago and had several family members asking about this recently. ?They had come to the conclusion that they wee no longer available. So I'm guessing there's a few people around who used to buy these bulbs for use at home but now cannot buy them at the supermarket and may have come to the same conclusion.

The withdrawal of the higher wattage bulbs seemed to coincide with the introduction of the energy efficient bulbs. ?Is there some sort of plot to wean us off the good old incandescent bulb in favour of the new, and, in my opinion less than ideal, energy efficient bulbs?

However all isn't lost. ?Places like Mitre 10 Mega sell the higher wattage bulbs for those of you that want them.

Supermarkets tend to only stock items that many people buy, so I presume 100 watt bulbs aren't that popular. Contact the supermarket owner if you want to know their reason. If you go to a specialist store you can get them

Places like Mitre 10 Mega sell the higher wattage bulbs for those of you that want them.

I saw a couple buy a ten pack of plain old 100 watt incandescents for $5 and cringed. I don't know of any reason to buy those for general household lighting any more. The $3 Philips ecoclassic30 halogen incandescents the supermarkets and hardware outlets sell last at least twice as long, give a better light quality and use 30% less electricity.

A 70watt halogen incandescent will save you $5 per 1000 hours of operation versus a traditional 100watt incandescent including the higher unit cost. They also sell 105 and 140 watt halogen bulbs to replace 150 and 200 watt incandescents if you want something extra bright. The 140 watt halogens are harder to find which may have something to do with the "100 watt MAX" stickers so many fittings have on them ;)

Overseas Philips sells an ecoclassic50 30 watt replacements for 60 watt bulbs and 70watt halogen spotlights but I haven't seen them in NZ. Osram has an extremely bright 205watt halogen screw bulb but again the selection of lights in NZ is very limited.

One drawback with the ecobulbs (compact fluoros) is they don't like power cuts - and even though we're part of "Auckland" our power supply is still rural... we expect to get a few power cuts a year, mainly during storms.

I put a couple of compact fluoros in and since their first power cut they make a quiet whistling sound. At the moment they still go, but I'm not sure what damage has been done nor their efficiency any more.

<- don't ask me where I am - I haven't a clue: its a tech thing ;)Housewife computerer: not particularly great at either. And don't take me too seriously.

Technofreak: Has anyone noticed that it's impossible to buy incandescent bulbs bigger than 100 watts at the supermarket? [...] Is there some sort of plot to wean us off the good old incandescent bulb in favour of the new, and, in my opinion less than ideal, energy efficient bulbs?

Unlikely. With the availability of EE bulbs putting out the same amount of light, I'd guess sales dropped and supermarkets wanted to use the space for more profitable and faster selling lines.

allan: eco-bulbs either look extemely ugly, or they just don't fit in the space available.

With the extra ballast room required on cfl's we've run into this with some light housings that can't accept cfl equivalents. Best we could do was a compact halogen style, in a standard sized lamp housing that was roughly 75% of the original power equivalent.

allan: Try finding incandescent 40w twisty candle bulbs for a chandelier now. Nothing LED to replace them yet and other eco-bulbs either look extemely ugly, or they just don't fit in the space available.

Try going to somewhere like Mitre 10, they have them.

As for the EE bulbs, I will never buy another one, my experience with them is they are expensive, don't last very long and put out a poor light plus they are not eco friendly to dispose of.

As for down lights, they're a very inefficient way to light the room, I would never install them.

I haven't seen the halogen lights that have been mentioned here. Do they fit into the standard BC fitting?

We had noticed this some time ago and had several family members asking about this recently. ?They had come to the conclusion that they wee no longer available. So I'm guessing there's a few people around who used to buy these bulbs for use at home but now cannot buy them at the supermarket and may have come to the same conclusion.

The withdrawal of the higher wattage bulbs seemed to coincide with the introduction of the energy efficient bulbs. ?Is there some sort of plot to wean us off the good old incandescent bulb in favour of the new, and, in my opinion less than ideal, energy efficient bulbs?

However all isn't lost. ?Places like Mitre 10 Mega sell the higher wattage bulbs for those of you that want them.

You may find that a lot of light sockets are not rated for incandescent bulbs above 100W due to heat and fire risks.

This may be the reason there are less freely available. But i am only guessing :P